you are infinite as the universe you hold inside
by DaughterOfPoseidon333
Summary: "She would bring hope to the galaxy again". Rey character study one-shot feat. Luke.


**So I'm back with another Rey one-shot (because apparently all I can write lately is Star Wars one-shots). And it's Rey. Because Rey. I love her so much and she's just the best.**

 **Title taken from "Light" by Sleeping at Last (like it's not even surprising to me at this point because most of my titles are taken from their music because it's just so good. Just go listen to it, you won't regret it).**

 **Enjoy!**

 **-:-**

Rey had been seven when she first heard the stories.

She hadn't known it at the time ( _still a little too young to understand the passage of time_ ) but she had been on Jakku for two years, still waiting, praying, hoping that her family would come back. ( _Come back_ , like the way she had screamed for them, begged for them to do). It had taken her those two years to work up the courage to shyly make her way into the circle of old scavengers telling tales of the Force and the Jedi, the Empire and the Rebellion. She didn't like spending much time around the other people of the village, but she'd seen the groups that gathered around the fire on nights like those, and she'd wanted to be a part of it. So she'd huddled on the edge of the circle, hardly feeling the chill of the desert night as she was completely absorbed by the stories the elders weaved together, seemingly making the millions of stars above dance with their magic.

That night, after crawling back to her meager shelter next to Unkar Plutt's building (since she hadn't yet discovered her fallen AT-AT shelter, her feet too small to carry her so far into the desert), Rey expected to dream of Clone Wars and Death Stars and Lightsabers and, of course, the Force. Instead, what she saw when she closed her eyes was the sea. Miles upon miles of water, the deepest, richest blue, the kind of vast ocean she could only imagine as she picked through endless stretches of Jakku sand in hopes of finding something worth giving to Unkar Plutt for her next meal. The water, though she had never seen ( _or dreamed_ ) of so much, called to her, beckoned to her as she slept, feeling more like home than the desert planet she had been on for two years already. The islands that sprung up, dotting the sea like constellations, held all kinds of mysteries her body absolutely begged her to discover.

When she opened her eyes in the morning she almost expected to see the sea stretched out before her, but there was only the heat of the day, already pressing down on her even in the early hours of morning. She wished to see that ocean again. And she did, again and again in her dreams. But years passed without actually being able to touch the waves she so desperately wanted to comb her fingers through, and the sea became just that. A dream.

Until the stories she sat and listened to for so long became true, right before her eyes.

Rey had so often watched the stars, dreamt of them, but she never imagined she'd get to be among them, a _part_ of them. She never imagined she'd fly away from Jakku as she did, let alone with newfound friends at her side. Despite waiting for her family for so long ( _every day a tally mark scratched into the wall of her fallen shelter_ ) a small part of her had begun to think that she would be alone forever. To realize she was the farthest thing from that…well, it was more magical than the stories she listened to growing up, more magical than realizing she was like the heroes in those stories.

And when she flew lightyears away in search of the Luke Skywalker she had only heard about around the campfire, when she _saw the sea_ , Rey realized she never had to be alone again, and it was the greatest feeling in the world. _She wasn't alone_. And the ocean was as wide and beautiful and blue as it had been in her dreams. She tried to touch the Force, the way she had as she stood on the edge of a cliff, lightsaber in hand, snow swirling around her as her enemy tried to cut her down, overpower her. She'd felt the power of the Force then, felt it coursing through her like an old friend, like a new friend, and she felt then as she did now— _whole_. Capable of anything. The part of her that had been missing for so long was suddenly filled because she had friends, a family ( _even if it wasn't the one that left her_ ) and she had an understanding of herself and who she was and she felt so alive and warm. Warmer than when the sun of Jakku beat down on her shoulders. The Force was warm too, flowing through her like the currents in the swirling sea beneath the Falcon as she maneuvered it over the waves and to the island where a Jedi master (hopefully, _because she wasn't done hoping_ ) was waiting for her.

Rey climbed step after step. Every once in a while she would look back down at the _Millennium Falcon_ and see Chewbacca and R2 waiting there patiently. Eventually, though, they became nothing more than specks in the distance and she was left with her thoughts and the feeling of her heart pounding wildly against her ribcage. She could sense him, _Luke Skywalker_. She knew she was in the right place, but she was nervous. All the stories she had heard when she was little had come true right before her eyes. She'd seen more of the galaxy than she ever dreamed of. Realized she was as powerful as the Jedi of old. But this was different. This was _Luke Skywalker._ A hero. A Jedi. Someone big and strong who, when she was little, she imagined would come and rescue her from Jakku and help her find her family.

But now she was here, about to meet him, see him, know for sure that he was real, and she was so, so nervous. She touched the Force, reached out for it, sought its comfort and warmth that had become so familiar inside herself already ( _she knew she had barely grazed the surface yet, was thrilled to see that all she could do_ ). She held onto that warmth, like soaking the sun into her skin. One step after another until she reached the top.

When she saw him, when he turned to face her, lowered his hood, she couldn't help but feel like she was back on Jakku, sitting around a campfire as the elder scavengers told the story of how Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star, how Luke Skywalker became a Jedi, how Luke Skywalker defeated the Emperor and Vader and thus helped destroy the Empire ( _though from the look in his eyes and his presence in the Force she could already tell there was so much more to the story than just that_ ).

Unable to speak, Rey brought out Luke's lightsaber, _Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber_ , and extended it to him. Holding the lightsaber, seeing Luke, she knew she hadn't been wrong to hold onto hope for so long. Things hadn't turned out exactly like she'd thought, but they had turned out so much better than she ever could have hoped for.

 _She wasn't done hoping._

-:-

Luke could feel her presence days before she landed. Maybe years. Something had pulled, tugged lightly, like a whisper, at the back of his mind for so long, a feeling and the image of a sea long before he even resided on one of its islands.

But when she landed, he knew. _She was the one. The galaxy's new hope._

 _Rey. That was her name. Rey._ He'd felt it spoken to him softly by the presences' of his father, Anakin, of Obi-Wan, and of the other Jedi long dead but never forgotten, never truly gone. And he waited. Waited for days, months, years. He felt the Force move and change around him, like the waves that rolled and crashed against the rocks of the place of his exile. He felt the Force bend and twist and weave every second into a moment. Could feel as visions he saw came to pass. Saw _Rey_ , getting closer and closer to her destiny each day.

And when she finally stopped, at the top of his mountain, her presence in the Force was so strong ( _so new, yet so old_ ) that when he turned and saw her, he couldn't even speak. He didn't know what to say. He could feel everything. Her fear, her nervousness, her loneliness ( _though he could feel she wasn't so lonely anymore_ ). She was all of those things, but more so than any of it, she was so full of _hope_. She was nearly overflowing with it. Her strength and warmth and heart, all of it absolutely bursting with it. Even when her brow creased and her chin trembled just the slightest, eyes shining, the hand that held his lightsaber ( _his father's lightsaber_ ) was steady.

 _Hope. She would bring the galaxy hope again._

 **-:-**

 **Thanks for reading!**

 **-DaughterOfPoseidon333**


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